Doing Scary Stuff

I’m not sure if you’ve ever gone through this – I’m guessing you probably have. As you know, I finished writing the bulk of Coping with the Horroffice at the end of last year. Then there was a lot of work involved in getting the actual physical (and Kindle version) of the book ready and out there. That took up quite a few months too. But the bulk of that work is done now. I will need to keep marketing it, so that people know it’s there, but I will now have some time to start working on my next book.

And that’s where the problem is. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely problem to have. But it is definitely a problem. I’ve got lots of ideas. There are potentially two further books along the same lines as Coping with the Horroffice, so it would be a series of three eventually. But I’ve always wanted to write some gorgeous fiction, and I’ve been working on an idea I had a few months ago. And then just a couple of weeks ago I came up with another idea I’ve fallen in love with. And that’s on top of about half a dozen scribbled notes of ideas or concepts for other books. So my problem has been that I haven’t been able to decide what to focus on.

I’ve been faffing.

A few notes on one idea, some characters for another idea, a bit of a plot outline for yet another idea. Which is all great, but it isn’t moving me forward.

I’ve mentioned this dilemma to a few friends. Some have said I should write the next in the series, some have said I should go for one of the fiction books. And yet no decision has been forthcoming from me.

I had a chat to my business coach about it, which helped enormously. She told me something which I already knew deep down, in my gut, but had to hear from someone else, someone who I trust has my best interests at heart. She told me to write what I wanted to read.

And so I’ve been mulling on what I want to write that I also want to read. That’s helped narrow it down to two ideas. They both excite me. But one of them scares the bejesus out of me too. It’ll be a challenge, and a pretty big piece of work. I won’t expect to have a first draft ready for quite some time (and I’m not a particularly patient person). It’ll take a lot of planning with plots, characters, twists and getting the feel right. And it will also take some research. This is a little bit new to me, because so far I’ve written about what I know, what I’ve experienced, and so it’s flowed fairly easily. The other idea would be similar in terms of input and work, but feels intrinsically easier. I know I could do it well. This new idea – I’m not so sure. I might end up making a great big mess of it.

So, I’m going to do what all the greats, all the legends, all my inspirations say – I’m going to go for the scary stuff, for the book that makes me nervous and excited and itching to get going and terrified to start – because doing scary stuff is the only way I’ll learn and develop as a writer and as a person. Writing this new book is going to scare me every single day, and I LOVE that!

I’m looking forward to sharing the highs and lows with you, and I’d love to hear what scary stuff you’re doing that makes life more awesome for you.